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tashadandelion 's review for:
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I have arrived late to Bill Buford's writing, and what a treat. There is a certain type of mind some possess, containing an irresistible combination of passion and nerdy attention to detail on the topic of choice. This is Buford's writing -- dense but engaging and fascinating. I would call myself an intermediate cook, even after all these years of self-taught family meals created 5-6 nights a week, and this book confirms that the furthest end of the cooking gamut is indeed lightyears beyond me. And that's delightful -- I'd rather daydream about the techniques not yet learned, the ingredients never considered until now than find myself at the end of the road, unsurprised, uncurious, and already experienced in every manner of cooking. This book tells the tale of a family uprooted from NYC to Lyon, France, so that Buford can wedge himself into the haute cuisine world there and learn from the best of the best. The title, Dirt, brings to mind the French term "terroir", used in the wine world to mean the geographical location, soil, and growing conditions that produce the flavors in the grapes grown there. Buford concludes that what makes Lyonnaise food the best in France is the cultural closeness to the ingredients, all produced locally on non-factory farms, or in many cases, harvested or hunted wild from the swamps, forests, fields, streams, rivers, and lakes in the area. Everyone, from rigorously trained chefs to the farmer down the road cares deeply for the quality of their food ingredients, perhaps obsessively so. And this is what brings Buford a deeply satisfying simpatico. Me too! I get it -- I'm fussy about ingredients myself, and my family is baffled when I throw certain things away because they don't smell just right or have a dodgy look to them. I also get a bit upset if ingredients aren't cut to the correct size and shape -- it changes the whole dish, and I am the only one in the family who cares one whit about it. But back to the book -- the OTHER meaning of the title (as far as I am concerned) is the dishy, gossipy detail Burford supplies about the chefs of his acquaintance, both in the US and in France. He does not pull his punches in his descriptions of people. While as a reader this is immensely satisfying to take in, I found myself wondering how this book was received by his various colleagues, friends, and mentors featured within. I have two criticisms to offer, and both relate to happenings he describes (rather than the writing itself). First is one that has already been leveled in a variety of professional reviews -- Buford put his wife in the position of being an almost-single parent to twin toddlers for years in the pursuit of this French cooking knowledge. Yes, she agreed to it, and yes, they appear to have survived as a married couple, but damn, that was a very short end of the stick she got for a while there. I can only hope that he has since returned the favor to her in some way of her choosing. The second is gut-churning. Buford describes the shocking verbal and physical abuse that goes on in professional kitchens. Abuse he witnessed and to some degree endured himself, and stood by or did not defend himself. This was hard to read about. In particular, the abuse leveled against the sole female chef in an otherwise all-male kitchen was rage-inducing, at least for me. It's very hard not to find Buford guilty of perpetuating misogyny and more generalized abuse as a passive, complicit witness -- he openly admits to this failing. But, none of us are perfect, not a one, and very few people really DO step up when witnessing shocking abuse, so I'd be hard-pressed to feel too superior, and I'd advise no-one else to give in to that temptation. Nonetheless, it begs the question why professional kitchen culture remains so toxic. It is a CHOICE, a CULTURE, not an inevitability. It can be changed, if leading chefs step up and demand it, kitchen by kitchen. If you are a foody, this is a must-read. So satisfying, educational, and deeply engaging.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship