Buford, “Heat” at the Post

Foodie travelers can chat with Heat author Bill Buford today at 3 p.m. ET at the Washington Post. Before serving an apprenticeship with Mario Batali in the kitchen of his New York restaurant Babbo, Buford spent time in Italy studying to be a pasta maker and butcher. He chronicles it all in “Heat.” The book has received rave reviews from, among others, the Post, the Onion, Slate and the New York Times.  The Los Angeles Times recently profiled Buford and recounted his unlikely journey from New Yorker editor to culinary student. Reported the Times: “[N]ot too many people would have walked out on his job at the New Yorker. Few would have traded such cachet—rubbing shoulders with writers and influencing the national literary conversation—for a set of perilous kitchen knives.” Buford told the newspaper: “These all turned out to be exhilarating experiences. Before this happened, I was on the outside looking in. But now I’m a participant. I feel like I’m part of a culinary tradition.”

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