Until recently, Bill Buford was an enthusiastic, if rather chaotic, home cook. His meals were characterized by two incompatible qualities: their ambition and his inexperience at preparing them. Nevertheless, his lifelong regret was that he'd never worked in a professional kitchen.
Then, three years ago, an opportunity presented itself. Buford was asked by the New Yorker to write a profile of Mario Batali, a Falstaffian figure of voracious appetites who ran one of New York's most successful three-star restaurants. Batali had learned his craft by years of training - first, working in London with the young Marco Pierre White; then in California during the Food Revolution; and finally in Italy, being taught how to make pasta by hand in a hillside trattoria. Buford accepted the commission, if Batali would let him work in his kitchen, as his slave. He worked his way up to being a 'line cook' and then left New York to apprentice himself under the very teachers who had taught his teacher: preparing game with Marco Pierre White, making pasta in a hillside trattoria, and finally, in a town in Northern Italy, becoming an Italian butcher.
Heat is a marvellous hybrid: a memoir of Buford's kitchen adventure, the story of Batali's amazing rise to 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 savour.



![Leonard, Una BARGAIN COOKERY Una Leonard: Sweet Therapy: The joy of baking [2022] hardback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/leonard-una-una-leonard-sweet-therapy-the-joy-of-baking-2022-hardback-57845974892883_{width}x.jpg?v=1737372819)
![Skehan, Donal BARGAIN COOKERY Skehan Donal: Home Kitchen [2023] hardback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/skehan-donal-skehan-donal-home-kitchen-2023-hardback-58948323475795_{width}x.jpg?v=1726569309)
![O'hora, Brigid PREORDER NONFICTION New Brigid O'Hora: The Home Sommelier [2024] hardback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/o-hora-brigid-brigid-o-hora-the-home-sommelier-2024-hardback-9781399734615-57002787144019_{width}x.jpg?v=1742998760)
![Inchauspe, Jessie BARGAIN HEALTH Jessie Inchauspe: The Glucose Goddess Method [2023] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/inchauspe-jessie-jessie-inchauspe-the-glucose-goddess-method-2023-paperback-57818457342291_{width}x.jpg?v=1732730616)
