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A review by biblix
Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford
4.0
It's a good read, but I have little to say about the book itself. I do have other thoughts though.
I feel like there should be an entire genre of books like this (how selfish of me to think like this), but there isn't. Perhaps it's evidence of the failure of popular cooking shows like Masterchef to ignite a revolution in the food industry. Gourmand-turned-gourmet chef seems to be the foodie tagline of the 21st century but, are many serious enough to turn their hobby into a profession?
Of course, there's nothing wrong with hobbies, but one still wonders: is cooking as a profession widely respected, admired, and even desired? Every year, dozens of books written by investors, financiers, politicians -- many biographically, really -- fill the bookstores. But food making, though forever somehow relevant, remains a dormant genre in print.
I am not one to celebrate celebrities, to idolise idols, to deify deities, but it remains an interesting point that food is forever taken seriously -- up to a point. Orwell, similarly interested, notes that "it is curious how seldom the all-importance of food is recognized. You see statues everywhere to politicians, poets, bishops, but none to cooks or bacon-curers or market gardeners.”
And finally, a minor spoiler, Buford on why he wanted to cook professionally: "People don't have this kind of knowledge today, even though it seems as fundamental as the earth...I didn't want this knowledge in order to be a professional; just to be more human".
Thank you Bill. I too aspire to be more human.
I feel like there should be an entire genre of books like this (how selfish of me to think like this), but there isn't. Perhaps it's evidence of the failure of popular cooking shows like Masterchef to ignite a revolution in the food industry. Gourmand-turned-gourmet chef seems to be the foodie tagline of the 21st century but, are many serious enough to turn their hobby into a profession?
Of course, there's nothing wrong with hobbies, but one still wonders: is cooking as a profession widely respected, admired, and even desired? Every year, dozens of books written by investors, financiers, politicians -- many biographically, really -- fill the bookstores. But food making, though forever somehow relevant, remains a dormant genre in print.
I am not one to celebrate celebrities, to idolise idols, to deify deities, but it remains an interesting point that food is forever taken seriously -- up to a point. Orwell, similarly interested, notes that "it is curious how seldom the all-importance of food is recognized. You see statues everywhere to politicians, poets, bishops, but none to cooks or bacon-curers or market gardeners.”
And finally, a minor spoiler, Buford on why he wanted to cook professionally: "People don't have this kind of knowledge today, even though it seems as fundamental as the earth...I didn't want this knowledge in order to be a professional; just to be more human".
Thank you Bill. I too aspire to be more human.