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  • Published: 1 October 2020
  • ISBN: 9781446442098
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432
Categories:

Dirt

Adventures in French Cooking




From the author of the widely acclaimed Heat – a hilarious and highly obsessive account of the author's adventures in the world of French haute cuisine

From the author of the widely acclaimed Heat, an exhilarating account of Bill Buford's adventures in the world of French cooking.

'A romping, chomping, savoury tour de force... Hilarious' Simon Schama

What does it take to master French cooking? This is the question that drives Bill Buford to abandon his perfectly happy life in New York City and (with his wife and three-year-old twin sons in tow) move to Lyon, the so-called gastronomic capital of France.

But what was meant to be six months in a new city turns into a wild five-year odyssey. As Buford apprentices at Lyon's best boulangerie, studies at a legendary culinary school and cooks at a storied Michelin-starred restaurant, he discoveries the true grit, precision and passion of the French kitchen.

'Hugely entertaining' Observer
'Rollicking, food-stuffed entertainment... Gourmets and gourmands will savour this' Spectator

  • Published: 1 October 2020
  • ISBN: 9781446442098
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432
Categories:

About the author

Bill Buford

Bill Buford has been a writer and editor for the New Yorker since 1995. Before that he was the editor of Granta magazine for sixteen years and, in 1989, became the publisher of Granta Books. He is also the author of Heat and Among the Thugs. He was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, grew up in California, and was educated at UC Berkeley and Kings College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a Marshall Scholarship for his work on Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. He lives in New York City with his wife, Jessica Green, and their two sons.

Also by Bill Buford

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Praise for Dirt

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

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

One of the greatest writers of his generation... Bill's latest is required reading for anyone with a love of history, good eating, and masterful storytelling.

David Chang

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!

Simon Schama

A book to drool for. Magnifique!

Mary Norris

This book may well be an even greater pleasure than its predecessor... Delightful, highly idiosyncratic.

Lisa Abend, New York Times Book Review

A welcome reminder of simpler times... Buford's writing is filled with humor and heart.

Annabel Gutterman, TIME

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.

John Freeman, Lit Hub

Hugely entertaining.

Tim Adams, Observer

Another rollicking, food-stuffed entertainment... Gourmets and gourmands will savour this.

Adam Begley, Spectator

I adore Buford's enthusiasm, which is unstinting, endlessly curious and absolutist in the best sense.

Rachel Cooke, Observer

I admire this book enormously; it's a profound and intuitive work of immersive journalism.

Dwight Garner, New York Times

Buford has an inexhaustible zest for life; the book is a tour de force.

Karen Barnes, Delicious

Hugely enjoyable... Buford's patience and composure are remarkable, his reportage illuminating.

Roger Lewis, The Times

For a rip-roaring account of French food culture and the dos and don'ts of working in a kitchen, look no further.

Olivia Marks, Vogue *The Best Food Writing For Autumn 2020*

[An] ecstatic, turbocharged book.

Francesca Carington, Tatler *Best New Autumnal Reads*

Buford is excellent company - candid, self-deprecating and insatiably, omnivorously interested... [I] wolfed it down.

Orlando Bird, Telegraph

Fluidly readable... exhaustive and enlightening.

Stuart Walton, World of Fine Wine

As reportage, it's as immersive as you could wish for. It's also hilarious and humbling

Hephzibah Anderson, Observer

[A] rip-roaring buffet of a memoir... This is no typical expat-in-France tale and all the better for it - Buford's Lyonnais capers make for a literary feast.

French Property News, *Christmas Gift Guide 2020*

Dirt is like a long and languorous lunch with far too much to eat and drink, but all the better for it... a very funny book.

Julia Platt Leonard, Independent, *Books of the Year*

A witty and well-written account of his [Buford's] move from New York and his immersion into the hard and uncompromising world of the Michelin-starred restaurants of this beautiful city... a brilliant read... Because of Buford's book I'm saving up to go back to Lyon.

Robert Hamilton, Northern Soul, *Books of the Year*

Brilliantly written over endless drafts and many more years. We won't see its like again.

Allan Jenkins and Molly Tait-Hyland, Observer, *Books of the Year*

Buford is excellent company - candid, self-deprecating and insatiably, omnivorously interested... [I] wolfed it down.

Orlando Bird, Daily Telegraph

This is no typical expat tale; Buford's vivid descriptions place you firmly in the heat of the kitchen, making for a mouth-wateringly thrilling and authentic dive into France's foodie culture.

France