Lori M. (lormac) reviewed on + 120 more book reviews
An interesting book to listen to, although I don't know if I would have enjoyed reading it as much. The author meets Mario Battali on an informal basis and becomes interested in (a) Mario as a individual in re: how he became a world-class chef and (b) how one actually becomes a chef. The rest of the book covers the author's work in Battali's kitchen, visits to chefs Battali worked for and with, trips to learn to make pasta the way Battali makes it, and his apprenticeship with a butcher who worked with Battali's father at one point. However what seems to be a very Battali-centric book becomes much more - a book about food and our attitudes towards food and the author's efforts to understand the whole foodie culture. By the end, I recognized that Battali was really just a framework for the author to hang his story on and not the focus of the book at all
