Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French cooking

The hugely anticipated follow up to Heat–Bill Buford’s hilariously self-deprecating, highly obsessive adventures in the world of French haute cuisine.

In Dirt, Bill Buford–author of the best-selling, now-classic, Heat–moves his attention from Italian cuisine to the food of France. Baffled by the language, determined that he can master the art of French cooking–or at least get to the bottom of why it is so revered–Buford begins what will become a five-year odyssey by shadowing the revered French chef Michel Richard in Washington, D.C. He soon realizes, however, that a stage in France is necessary, and so he goes–this time with his wife and three-year-old twin sons in tow–to Lyon, the gastronomic capital of France. Studying at l’Institut Bocuse, cooking at the storied, Michelin-starred Mère Brazier, Buford becomes a man obsessed–to prove that French cooking actually derives from the Italian, to prove himself on the line, to prove that he is worthy of these gastronomic secrets. With his signature humor, sense of adventure, and masterful ability to immerse himself in his surroundings, Bill Buford has written what is sure to be the food-lover’s book of the year.