Imprint: Jonathan Cape
Published: 01/10/2020
ISBN: 9781787333116
Length: 432 Pages
Dimensions: 240mm x 38mm x 162mm
Weight: 667g
RRP: £18.99
'A chomping, romping, savoury tour de force: by turns hilarious, and seriously thought provoking' Simon Schama
*A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE OBSERVER AND NEW YORK TIMES*
For most of his adult life, Bill Buford had secretly wanted to find himself in France, in a French kitchen, having mastered the art of French haute cuisine. And where better than Lyon, the most Frenchly authentic of cities and the historic gastronomic capital of the world? There were a few obstacles: he didn't speak a word of French, he had no formal training, he didn't know a soul in Lyon, and his wife and two twin toddlers currently lived in New York City.
So begins Bill Buford's vivid, hilarious, intimate account of his five-year odyssey in French cuisine. After realising that a stage in France was the necessary first step, he moves with his young family to Lyon. Studying at L'Institut Bocuse, cooking at the storied, Michelin-starred La Mère Brazier, enduring the endless hours and exacting rigeur of the kitchen, Buford becomes a man obsessed - with proving himself on the line, proving that he is worthy of the gastronomic secrets he is learning, proving that French cooking actually derives from (mon dieu!) the Italian. As he befriends the local baker, attends a pig slaughter, and gradually earns the acceptance of the locals and his fellow chefs, Buford comes to understand the true grit, precision and passion of the French kitchen.
Warm, insightful and richly entertaining, Dirt is a feast of a book, which is sure to become a classic of food writing on France.
Imprint: Jonathan Cape
Published: 01/10/2020
ISBN: 9781787333116
Length: 432 Pages
Dimensions: 240mm x 38mm x 162mm
Weight: 667g
RRP: £18.99
For a rip-roaring account of French food culture and the dos and don'ts of working in a kitchen, look no further.
Hugely enjoyable... Buford's patience and composure are remarkable, his reportage illuminating.
This book may well be an even greater pleasure than its predecessor... Delightful, highly idiosyncratic.
Buford is excellent company - candid, self-deprecating and insatiably, omnivorously interested... [I] wolfed it down.
I adore Buford's enthusiasm, which is unstinting, endlessly curious and absolutist in the best sense.
Hugely entertaining.
Another rollicking, food-stuffed entertainment... Gourmets and gourmands will savour this.
A chomping, romping, savoury tour de force: by turns hilarious (often at his own expense); and seriously thought provoking about our relationship with cooking and appetite... You finish it stuffed and groggy with happy illumination but as with every great feast, wanting even more!
I admire this book enormously; it's a profound and intuitive work of immersive journalism.
By turns funny, intimate, insightful, and occasionally heartbreaking. It's a remarkable book, and even readers who don't know a sabayon from a Sabatier will find it endlessly rewarding.