Books and food.

I like reading about food almost as much as I like eating. I’ve been talking about a book I finished last week to just about anyone who’ll listen, so I thought I’d recommend it here.

It’s Heat by Bill Buford, a memoir from a guy in his forties who’s been writing for the New Yorker and decides to learn how to cook by apprenticing himself to a famous New York chef (who’s originally from Seattle, by the way). The subtitle is An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany.

I read books by listening to them – so this one will forever remind me of learning how to ride the bus in Seattle, my new way of commuting. The author has a wonderful, self-deprecating sense of humor that tickled me. I tried hard not to laugh out loud while riding public transportation. He writes like he’s a joke, but he must have taken this very seriously, because he was taken very seriously by the people around him. (Apparently, once you cut up a carrot or chop an onion a thousand times, you get pretty good at it.) He ends up going to Italy several times to get more training – including training as a butcher, which seems like it may be going a little too far, if you ask me.

So if you like cooking, eating, reading and laughing, I can recommend this book. Especially the audio version thereof.

Have you read any good books lately?