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Bill Buford

Bill Buford Biography

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“I was taught how to tie up the loin with a butcher's looping knot and was so excited by the discovery that I went home and practiced. I told Elisa about my achievement. “I tied up everything,” I said. “A leg of lamb, some utensils, a chair. My wife came home, and I tied up her too.” Elisa shook her head. “Get a life,” she said and returned to her task.”

FoodCookingFood Love
Book:Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
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“A white truffle, which elsewhere might sell for hundreds of dollars, seemed easier to come by than something fresh and green. What could be got from the woods was free and amounted to a diurnal dining diary that everyone kept in their heads. May was wild asparagus, arugula, and artichokes. June was wild lettuce and stinging nettles. July was cherries and wild strawberries. August was forest berries. September was porcini.”

MayMightWhiteFoodEasierGreenSellsCookingDollarsWoodsForestsCulinaryElsewhereSeptemberDiariesJuneJulyAugustCherriesBerriesDiningStrawberriesLettuceTrufflesAsparagusNettlesArtichokesWild StrawberriesArugula
Author:Bill Buford
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“You don't learn knife skills at cooking school, because they give you only six onions and no matter how hard you focus on those six onions there are only six, and you're not going to learn as much as when you cut up a hundred.”

GivingMatterHardSchoolFocusCuttingSkillsSixHundredCookingKnivesOnions
Book:Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-maker and Apprentice to a Butcher in Tuscany
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“Then he exploded. "No!" he said. That familiar injunction. I'd heard it so many times. "No. I cannot take this steel. It would not be correct." He opened his knife drawer. "It goes here," he said, "until you return."(That's how you leave: by never saying good-bye.)And I learned that: to return. I came back the following year and the year after that. I hope to return every year (after all, I may never have the chance to learn so much), until I have no one to return to. (301)”

YearsMaySaidChanceHeardReturnFollowingFamiliarKnivesSteelByeGood ByeDrawersSaying Good Bye
Author:Bill Buford
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