26 of 52 (Halfway!)

Brother-in-law Elliott recommended this book. It took me a long time to read, because it's not the kind of book that you can't put down. It is the kind of book you are happy to read for twenty minutes before falling asleep each night.

Buford, former fiction editor for The New Yorker, recounts his experiences as an apprentice in Mario Batali's restaurant Babbo, and then in Italy learning about pasta and butchering. It was interesting to read, and made me realize that although I enjoy cooking, I would never enjoy cooking in a three star restaurant (from his description, it's a job that is as stressful and demanding and overworked as that of a first year medical resident). The book also made laugh out loud a number of times, especially in his spot-on descriptions of real Tuscan culture.

"When I started, I hadn't wanted a restaurant. What I wanted was the know-how of people who ran restaurants. I didn't want to be a chef: just a cook. And my experiences in Italy had taught me why. For millenia, people have known how to make their food. They have understood animals and what to do with them, have cooked with the seasons and had a farmer's knowledge of the way the planet works. They have preserved traditions of preparing food, handed down through generations, and have come to know them as expressions of their families. People don't have this kind of knowledge today, even though it seems as fundamental as the earth, and, it's true, those who do have it tend to be professionals -- like chefs. But I didn't want this knowledge in order to be a professional; just to be more human."