“Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking”
The way I found out about this book is this: while in Italy this summer, one of our guides told a few fantastic tales about how many of the very classic French dishes were actually… gasp… of Italian origin! (ex: Crêpes imported by Catherine de' Medici? Could it be true?) Upon a bit of research and investigation, I found a review for this book where author Buford, an American on a mission to master French cooking, also looks into these legends. It is his story of moving to Lyon, France with his wife and young children to learn everything he can about the art of French cuisine.
"What does it take to master French cooking? This is the question that drives Bill Buford to abandon his perfectly happy life in New York City and pack up and (with a wife and three-year-old twin sons in tow) move to Lyon, the so-called gastronomic capital of France. But what was meant to be six months in a new and very foreign city turns into a wild five-year digression from normal life, as Buford apprentices at Lyon’s best boulangerie, studies at a legendary culinary school, and cooks at a storied Michelin-starred restaurant, where he discovers the exacting (and incomprehensibly punishing) rigueur of the professional kitchen."
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