Bill Buford is the author of Heat and Among the Thugs. He has received a Marshall Scholarship, a James Beard Award, and the Comune di Roma’s Premio Sandro Onofri for narrative reportage. For eighteen years, Buford lived in England, and was the founding editor of the literary magazine Granta and the founding publisher of Granta Books. He moved to the United States in 1995 to join The New Yorker, where he has been the fiction editor, a staff writer, and a regular contributor. In 2008, he moved with his family to Lyon, France, and lived there for five years. He was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, educated at University of California, Berkeley, and King’s College, Cambridge, and now lives in New York City with his wife, the wine educator and writer Jessica Green, and their twin sons.
"This book may well be an even greater pleasure than its
predecessor. Moving himself, his wife and their two young boys to
Lyon, Buford sets out, with characteristically self-deprecating
humor, not merely to learn the techniques of French cuisine, but to
understand its essence . . . Most enjoyable are the apprenticeships
in which he sets out to master the five mother sauces, bake the
perfect baguette and construct the same misleadingly named 'duck
pie' . . . Delightful, highly idiosyncratic." —Lisa Abend, The New
York Times Book Review
"I heartily recommend Bill Buford's Dirt . .
. blazingly entertaining . . . Buford again proves
himself to be a relentless reporter and a self-deprecating guide .
. . As his title suggests, it's not just the fanatical
dedication and meticulously exacting prep. This deliciously salty
chronicle, loamy with culinary history and profiles of the great
chefs, is worth digging into." —Heller McAlpin, NPR
"A welcome reminder of simpler times . .
. Buford's writing is filled with humor and heart . . .
He unveils the importance of understanding a city in order to
better prepare its dishes . . .[and] underlines a deeply
resonant tenet of life: the value of community." —Annabel
Gutterman, TIME
"As with good cookery, no shortcuts are taken in Dirt. When
Buford picks up a subject — be it bread or language or culinary
history or Italian versus French food or the nature of Lyon — that
subject is simmered until every tendon has softened. This is a
big book that, like an army, moves entire divisions independent of
one another. Watching Buford choose a topic for scrutiny is like
watching an enormous bodybuilder single out one muscle, on the
mountain range of his or her arms, for a laser-focused burn . .
. He has a smart, literate, sly voice on the page . . . There
is an excellent history of cooking in Lyon, with Fernand Point and
Paul Bocuse at its molten center . . . I admire this book
enormously; it’s a profound and intuitive work of immersive
journalism." —Dwight Garner, The New York Times
"You can almost taste the food in Bill Buford’s Dirt, an
engrossing, beautifully written memoir about his life as a
cook in France . . . Buford brings a novelistic approach to
his story; he is both observer and participant. He’s
an entertaining, often comical, raconteur . . . His
descriptions of his new city are vivid and evocative . .
. humorously self-deprecating . . . Buford has another
goal besides training in a French kitchen: to investigate the
history and origins of that country’s cooking and its links to
Italian cuisine." —Moira Hodgson, The Wall Street Journal
"At a moment when the thought of food is always percolating, [Dirt]
actually presents an opportunity to examine what it means, exactly,
to be an eater . . . There are the usual comic
abasements. They spring from Lyon itself, a rough-and-tumble town
where fights and vandalism and drunken delinquency appear to be
common . . . The juxtaposition between this nasty, brutish
world and the civilizational peak that cuisine represents is part
of a broader tension—between the rough and the refined, the rustic
and the haute—that lies at the heart of cooking, and particularly
French cooking. Buford shows us both . . . [He] has
extended the old adage, You are what you eat, to something
broader, encompassing history, culture, the world: We are what
we eat. That notion has never rung truer." —Ryu Spaeth, The
New Republic
"[Buford] delves into the controversial origins of French
cuisine and restaurants, drawing unflinching portraits of past
and present luminaries like culinary school founder Paul
Bocuse himself. He pursues origins of dishes, sauces, and
their ingredients, even participating in the stark grittiness of
butchering a pig and learning that in France the best, most
coveted flavors come from the earthiest animal organs. An
inside look into haute cuisine." —Mark
Knoblauch, Booklist (Starred)
“Pure pleasure. Masterfully written. If you care at all about food,
about writing, about obsessive people with a sense of
adventure, you have to read this book. It is, in a word,
wonderful.” —Ruth Reichl, former editor of Gourmet and
author of Save Me the Plums
"If you gobbled up Buford’s 2006 book Heat like a bowl of fabulous
pasta, you’ll lap up this new volume like a vat of vichyssoise."
—Bethanne Patrick, The Washington Post
“Buford delivers a vivid and often laugh-out-loud account of the
tribulations, humblings, and triumphs he and his family endured in
the five years they lived in France . . . . [He] is a delightful
narrator, and his stories of attending a pig slaughter, befriending
the owner of a local bakery, and becoming gradually accepted by the
locals are 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.” —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"An ebullient, entertaining memoir of life in Lyon . . .
[Buford] describes in mouthwatering detail the many dishes he
cooked and ate and the charming restaurants the family
visited. A lively, passionate homage to fine food." —Kirkus
Reviews
"A funny, irreverent and obsessive account of his five-year odyssey
to discover everything about French food . . . This book doesn’t
offer any recipes, per se, but if perused closely, readers can find
instructions for assembling perhaps the grandest concoction of them
all: a life well and fully lived, seasoned with curiosity,
perseverance and humor—and a dash of adventure." —Alison Hood,
BookPage
"There’s plenty for food lovers here, but the book is also a
satisfying and envy-inspiring travelogue." —Joumana Khatib, The New
York Times ("11 Books to Watch For in May")
"An antidote to confining apartment walls and the daily tedium of
my own pedestrian meals . . . [Buford] is knowledgeable, quick and
funny—and Dirt is a work of cultural, historical and gastronomical
depth that reads like an action memoir . . . He truly took me to
the heart of French cuisine." —Eleanor Beardsley, NPR
"Delightful escapism . . . Culinary adventures ensue." —Mackenzie
Dawson, The New York Post ("The Best Books of the Week")
"Arriving right on time to offer us a delicious fantasy trip."
—Colette Bancroft, The Tampa Bay Times
"Dirt has the unsurprising effect of making you hungry." —Drew
Hart, The Arts Fuse
"A hilarious and humbling journey into the intimidating world
of haute French cuisine . . . Reveals the ugly truth
about the vituperative culture of apprenticeship in the French
kitchen, complete with pervasive bullying, humiliation and acts of
physical and emotional abuse . . . Frequently funny and always
candid." —Frank Brasile, Shelf Awareness for Readers
“Bill’s ability to fully immerse himself in a foreign place,
seemingly at the drop of a dime, is always a sight to behold. With
Dirt, Bill dives deep into the unforgiving kitchen culture of Lyon
and expresses what it’s truly like to be a cook in this legendary
food city.” —Marcus Samuelsson
“As a young cook, I dreamed of one day working in the formidable
French kitchens depicted in Dirt, but I never got the chance. Now,
after reading this unprecedented inside account from one of the
greatest writers of his generation, I'm convinced I actually did.
Bill’s latest is required reading for anyone with a love of
history, good eating, and masterful storytelling.” —David
Chang, restauranteur, broadcaster, and author
"There’s plenty for food lovers here, but the book is also a
satisfying and envy-inspiring travelogue."—Joumana Khatib, The New
York Times
“Bill Buford is an enthusiast of the highest order. His deep dive
into Lyonnais cuisine is a detective story, a love story, and an
act of bare-knuckled reverence. It’s earthy, brainy and delicious.”
—Pamela Druckerman, author of Bringing Up Bébé: One American
Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting
“This well and vividly written paean to Lyonnaise cuisine is
insightful, incisive, and informative. From the amazing creativity
of Michel Richard to the strict discipline of the Institut Bocuse,
from the brutal hierarchy of La Mére Brazier to the making of bread
in Lyon and Savoy, Bill Buford weaves a tale as smooth as a pike
quenelle and as rich as a Bresse chicken in cream sauce.
Alternatively buoyant, humorous and thoughtful, Dirt is a
very enjoyable feast." —Jacques Pépin, chef, author, teacher,
and co-host of “Julia and Jacques at Home”
“A thrilling tale of adventure, family, and great cooking inside
some of the world’s most influential and iconic kitchens, from the
Institut Paul Bocuse to La Mère Brazier.” —Eric Ripert, Chef &
Co-owner Le Bernardin , and author of 32 Yolks
“Bill Buford's Dirt—his memoir of an apprenticeship in
the unforgiving temples of French cuisine in Lyon—is 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. Rabelais would have
loved it. You finish it stuffed and groggy with happy illumination
but as with every great feast, wanting even more!” —Simon
Schama, historian and author of nineteen books, including
Rough Crossings
“In Dirt, Bill Buford talks his way into the cooking schools,
bakeries, and chefs’ kitchens of Lyon—in French, yet—while staying
(mostly) in his family’s good graces. The result is a book to drool
for. Magnifique!” —Mary Norris, author of Between You and
Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen and Greek to Me
"Buford spent five years cooking his way through the famed kitchens
of Lyon, France, in an attempt to answer the question: why is
French food so damn good? The answer, perhaps, lies in the book’s
title (spoiler alert), but the journey to get there is a delicious
and eye-opening one." —Plate Magazine ("Spring’s Best
Food Books")
"Dirt is a memoir about French cuisine, but it's also about
family, work, obsession, perfectionism, and what happens when you
actually do that crazy thing you've always wanted to do."
—Men's Health
"A warm and funny and very delicious story about a man late in life
falling in love with cooking . . . Buford [is] an energetic,
exquisite writer . . . Once he arrives in Lyon for the serious
instruction
Dirt has really hit its stride, tasty and Dickensian in its
characterizations and also ridiculous."
—John Freeman, Lit Hub ("Lit Hub's Most
Anticipated Books of 2020")
"Buford illustrates just how difficult rising through the
ranks of restaurant kitchens can be, even for classically trained
young chefs—especially when those chefs are women or non-white . .
. Much of the humor here comes from anecdotes about Buford’s
surprisingly resilient young family . . . One wonders if
Buford will again upend his family’s life to embark on another
international culinary adventure. If so, readers will be eager to
pack up and follow along."
—Norah Piehl, Bookreporter
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
