"Buford develops a superbly detailed picture of life in a top restaurant kitchen. . . Heat is a sumptuous meal." –The New York Times
"A delicious history of Italian cooking, with a twist: Buford, an amateur cook, entered the kitchen of one of New York City's hottest restaurants as a full-time employee, and [gives] us a story of Italian cuisine through the many characters . . . who prepare it, serve it, and eat it." –
GQ
"Delightful. . . . Charming. . . . [Buford's] style is . . . happily obsessed with a weird subculture, woozily in love with both cooking and the foul-mouthed, refined-palette world of the chef." –
The Washington Post Book World "Exuberant, hilarious, glorying in its rich and arcane subject matter,
Heat is Plimptonesque immersion journalism. . . . With
Heat, we have a writer lighting on the subject of a lifetime." –
The Los Angeles Times Book Review