summer reading

Despite all my complaining about how I don't have any time because of the baby, blah, blah, blah, I've actually managed to read a few books (besides Harry Potter) this summer. Even before going to cooking school, I've always been obsessed by food, and I somewhat secretly would love to be a food writer myself (if not a food photographer or stylist). So I recently finished Heat by Bill Buford, and I'm also wrapping up The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten and The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain. I know, it seems crazy that I've been alternating between reading three different books at once, but they are all non-fiction, and both Steingarten's and Bourdain's books are collections of shorter pieces that don't need to be read in any particular order.

You probably best know Jeffrey Steingarten as the occasional judge on Iron Chef America. He's the cranky old white guy who uses a lot of big words. He's otherwise known for being the food critic for Vogue. Anyways, Steingarten's book is actually 10 years old, but considered a "classic" in food writing. I happened to come across it at Half Price Books and thought, I'd give it a whirl. I'm actually not quite done with it yet, but so far, it's pretty good. I think he won me over in the first chapter, which was about how he became obsessed with baking the perfect loaf of bread, going so far as to order 50 lb. sacks of a certain kind of flour, freshly ground and directly from the mill. Sounds like something I would do, if I didn't know that Troy would freak out. The book has chapters covering all sorts of things that I'm sure were new and innovative at the time, but are kind of commonplace now. But I think that's what makes it kind of interesting since it really shows how far attitudes toward food (and particularly, dieting) have come in the last ten years. I think people nowadays are much more open-minded and interested in trying new and/or authentic things, even if they do seem weird or scary.

I have to confess, I am a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain. Kitchen Confidential is one of my all-time favorite books, and I re-read it at least once a year. The Nasty Bits is pretty much what the name implies: it's a collection of random odds and ends that he's written over the years for various magazines. Some of it is definitely repetitive, especially if you're already familiar with his general attitudes toward cooking and the restaurant business. Others are obviously newer and written during the time since he started doing his Travel Channel show, and I think those are the best pieces. I have to say, for an ex-junkie who was really only moderately successful as a chef, he's really hit the jackpot with his travel show. I wish I could convince someone to pay me to travel all over the world and eat. But I digress. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but again, that's because I thoroughly enjoy his aggressively overblown and self-important style. Oddly though, it ended with a short piece of fiction about a talented chef desperate for celebrity status to the detriment of all else. After reading Bourdain's hilarious Top Chef blog, I can't help but wonder if this character is modeled after Rocco DiSpirito.

Last, but not least, Heat, which is subtitled "An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany," was far and away one of the most enjoyable food-related books that I've read in a long time. I read it almost straight through (a rarity for me), and I was almost disappointed when it ended and I had to return it to the library. Heat is kind of starts out as kind of a cross between a biography of Mario Batali and an exploration of what drives people to become so passionate about food that they must share it with the public. But about halfway through, it turns more into a chronicle of the author's own transformation into one of those guys. I pretty much loved every aspect of this book, which is not surprising because again, the author had a certain obsessive quality that I can totally appreciate. For example, at one point, he became obsessed with finding the point in Italian history where people started making pasta with eggs instead of just flour and water. Not only did he scour through numerous medieval era cookbooks (in their original Italian, no less), but he even went so far as to contact Italian scholars and the head of the Pasta Museum (who knew there was such a thing?) trying to find the answer.

I also really liked getting to see another side of Batali other than the jovial, sanitized-for-television version that's on Food Network. Although, from what I could tell, that tv persona really isn't that different from his real life one except for maybe a little more exaggerated and a little less foul-mouthed. I'd say this book is definitely up there with Kitchen Confidential and Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. I'm going to be keeping my eye out for a used copy (or the paperback) and re-reading it soon.