金石堂比爾．布福特放著好好的《紐約客》編輯不幹，自願到三星餐廳的廚房當學徒，還大老遠跑到托斯卡尼跟肉販學藝……沒想到，這一股腦兒對美食的狂熱，換來的竟是集羞辱、凌虐與烤驗之大成的美味大歷險！
妙趣橫生，直追《山居歲月》！精采撩人，猶如美味豪華大餐！
一開始，比爾．布福特只是有機會近身採訪美國家喻戶曉的廚神馬利歐；按耐不住對美食的狂熱，他決定親身下海到馬利歐的餐廳廚房當學徒--他原以為他的跨界冒險行動，不過就像是到職業廚房的「地下社會」遊覽一番，還可以堂而皇之地進入餐廳重鎮，一窺美食如何烹煮調製的秘密，不料，他卻發現自己猶如墮入酷熱煉獄的奴隸，飽受煎熬、凌虐、烤驗……；然而，為了追尋頂尖廚藝的源頭，他索性辭掉工作，追隨師父馬利歐的腳步，遠渡重洋到義大利、英國，向馬利歐的師父一一學藝、討教，最後拜在熱愛朗誦但丁詩句的托斯卡尼肉販門下……
布福特在《煉獄廚房食習日記》中，以幽默敏銳、精采撩人的文字，活靈活現地描繪了他這個廚房天兵手忙腳亂的種種窘態、糗事，又如何捱過周遭個個身懷絕技的大廚們給他的魔鬼訓練……；我們有如身歷其境地體驗了熱廚裡的夢想人生，窺見大廚之所以為大廚--他們鮮明獨特、活力十足的個性，在烹飪裡灌注的熱情和感性；我們彷彿置身熱氣氤氳而香氣四溢的廚房裡，品味著美食所帶給我們的豐富美好，領略著食物背後的靈魂、文化傳統……
--「鵝毛筆獎」2006年飲食類入圍作品
--「詹姆斯．畢爾德獎」2007年飲食寫作類入圍作品
--《紐約時報》2006年百大暢銷好書
★本書中譯本由久周出版
作者簡介
比爾．布福特（Bill Buford）
《紐約客》雜誌的編制內作者，曾任該刊小說編輯八年。他曾是《格蘭塔》（Granta）雜誌的創社編輯，也曾是格蘭塔出版公司的發行人。著有暢銷書《在惡棍之間》（Among the Thugs），這是本有關群眾暴力和英國足球流氓的紀實書籍。他和他的妻子潔西卡和他們的兩個兒子住在紐約。
From one of our most interesting literary figures - former editor of Granta, former fiction editor at The New Yorker, acclaimed author of Among the Thugs - a sharp, funny, exuberant, close-up account of his headlong plunge into the life of a professional cook.
Expanding on his James Beard Award-winning New Yorker article, Bill Buford gives us a richly evocative chronicle of his experience as "slave" to Mario Batali in the kitchen of Batali's three-star New York restaurant, Babbo.
In a fast-paced, candid narrative, Buford describes three frenetic years of trials and errors, disappointments and triumphs, as he worked his way up the Babbo ladder from "kitchen bitch" to line cook . . . his relationship with the larger-than-life Batali, whose story he learns as their friendship grows through (and sometimes despite) kitchen encounters and after-work all-nighters . . . and his immersion in the arts of butchery in Northern Italy, of preparing game in London, and making handmade pasta at an Italian hillside trattoria.
Heat is a marvelous hybrid: a memoir of Buford's kitchen adventure, the story of Batali's amazing rise to culinary (and extra-culinary) fame, a dazzling behind-the-scenes look at a famous restaurant, and an illuminating exploration of why food matters. It is a book to delight in, and to savour.
