What I'm Reading Now

Heat, by Bill Buford. Mr. Buford signs on to be an "extern" at Babbo, one of Mario Batali's three star restaurants in NYC, and has written a book about his experience. He is not a professional chef, did not attend any culinary school, and, from what I can tell, is only doing this for the experience of it (which is not a bad reason to do something, I suppose.) "Externs" get paid nothing, and are little more than kitchen slaves.

So far, I've gotten a closer look at life in a restaurant kitchen, which is not attractive, and a closer look at Mario Batali himself, which is REALLY not attractive. He eats excessively, drinks excessively, and he loves NASCAR.

In addition to his Iron Chef status, Batali at one time had a show called Molto Mario. He worked in a L-shaped studio kitchen, always had three random people sitting at the bar, and would focus on one micro-region of Italy on each show. I never imagined I would cook any of the things he cooked, but the show could be very interesting when he talked about small-town Italian culture. He always started the show the same way - "I'm Mario Batali, and these are my good friends Billy, Tommy, and Susie, and this is Molto Mario." On one show, his friends were "Somebody, Somebody else, and Michael." Over the course of the show, I realized that Michael was none other than Michael Stipe of REM fame. Go figure.